World News - Walter Reed Fallout Claims Third Official Army's Surgeon General Retires; Third High-Level Official To Lose His Job

The Army announced the retirement Monday of its surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, in the latest fallout from the controversy over outpatient care of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Kiley, who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, submitted his retirement request on Sunday, the Army said in a statement Monday. Geren asked Kiley to retire, a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. "I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army," Kiley was quoted as saying in Monday's Army statement. ... http://www.cbsnews.com

Top opposition leaders were assaulted and tortured by police who broke up a prayer meeting planned to protest government policies, colleagues of the activists said Monday.One protester was shot dead by police in Sunday's unrest in the outskirts of the capital and scores of others were arrested. Journalists trying to cover the events also were arrested.In a statement, organizers of the prayer meeting, an alliance of opposition, civic, church leaders and student and anti-government groups, said lawyers who visited the detainees Monday reported the main opposition party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, fainted three times after being beaten by police.The alliance, called the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, said another opposition leader, Lovemore Madhuku, was taken to the main Harare hospital early Monday after collapsing from police assaults....http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/12/zimbabwe.unrest.ap/index.html?eref=rss_world

Propaganda has always played an important part in war, but in Afghanistan the battles between Nato forces and the Taleban are being fought not just in the deserts and valleys but in the media. When the war is about hearts and minds, winning public opinion is the be-all and end-all, and there's quite a temptation to interfere in a country with a now thriving media. A local journalist from Tolo TV was arrested and held by Afghan authorities for about 36 hours without charge, for talking to a Taleban spokesman who would ring in every day with his version of events - something which happens in most organisations, including the BBC. Last summer, a document was circulated to journalists by intelligence officers, and they were urged to sign up to an order banning criticism of the Nato mission, or of representing the Afghan armed forces as "weak", leading news bulletins with "terrorist activities" or filming or interviewing "terrorist commanders". ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6439121.stm

A revised version of a controversial bill granting amnesty to groups that allegedly committed war crimes was signed into law Saturday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai after being approved earlier in the day by the Afghan parliament, which includes many former militia leaders. The resolution bars the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes absent accusation from an alleged victim. It also extends immunity to all groups involved in pre-2002 conflicts, as opposed to only leaders of various factions alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1980s resistance against Soviet forces and war crimes committed during the country's civil war. The Taliban and other human rights violators active before the establishment of the December 2001 Interim Administration in Afghanistan are protected under the bill. Critics say the law may violate Afghanistan's constitution as well as certain international human rights treaties. ....http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/03/afghanistan-president-signs-war-crimes.php

A shocking picture of neglect and the appalling treatment of wounded British troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan emerged last night in a remarkable series of letters from soldiers' families obtained by The Observer. The sheaf of complaints, passed on by deeply alarmed senior military sources, claims that soldiers have been deprived of adequate pain relief and emotional support, and in some cases are unable to sleep because of night time noise in the NHS facilities caring for them. The NHS last night said that it had launched an inquiry into the complaints. One letter sent to the MoD and NHS managers reveals how the youngest British soldier wounded in Iraq, Jamie Cooper, was forced to spend a night lying in his own faeces after staff at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital allowed his colostomy bag to overflow. On another occasion his medical air mattress was allowed to deflate, leaving him in 'considerable pain' overnight despite an alarm going off....http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031200,00.html

The Senate's No. 3 Democrat said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign because he is putting politics above the law. Sen. Charles Schumer cited the FBI's illegal snooping into people's private lives and the Justice Department's firing of federal prosecutors. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Gonzales repeatedly has shown more allegiance to President Bush than to citizens' legal rights since taking his job in early 2005. He branded Gonzales, a former White House counsel, as one of the most political attorneys general in recent history. ``Attorney General Gonzales is a nice man, but he either doesn't accept or doesn't understand that he is no longer just the president's lawyer, but has a higher obligation to the rule of law and the Constitution even when the president should not want it to be so,'' Schumer said. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6474078,00.html